Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation and Conflict explores the everyday religious lives of Muslims in South Asia. The book argues that Islam cannot be understood through the works of theologians alone, for whom it is a formal, uniform and rigid system of beliefs and practices. Popular Islam, or Islam as it is practised by millions of Muslims in South Asia, has an empirical validity and is a dynamic process of adjustment and accommodation as well as conflict with other religions, with which it coexists.

The book is divided into four parts.

Part I: Concepts and Interpretations brings coherence and meaning to the confusion of everyday life.

Part II: Lived Islam and its Historical Context, explores the distinctive developments of Islam in Kashmir and Nepal.

Part III: Conflict and Accommodation analyses various aspects of both religious conflicts and accommodation. For instance, harmonious relations between Muslims and Hindus united by common worship at Muslim shrines in Karnataka is an empirical fact and common worship unites the marginalized Shia women in Hyderabad with women of other religions.

Part IV: The Presence of Sufism describes how marginalized Hindus and Muslims find acceptance in Sufism.